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Red Bull Ring 2014
The sixth round of the 2014 DTM Championship was held as the Red Bull Ring in August of 2014. The was the third race of the season to be held outside of Germany, and marked the start of the second half of the season. The race itself saw Championship leader Marco Wittmann claim his third win of the season to leap ahead of in their battle. Augusto Farfus and Timo Glock joined him on the podium to make an all BMW powered podium. Background Ahead of the annual visit to Austira, Marco Wittmann led the Championship by 20 points from super Swede . Bruno Spengler now sat in third ahead of the Red Bull Ring round, with Edoardo Mortara level on points, but behind on previous results. Mike Rockenfeller completed the top five, two points ahead of Maxime Martin who won in Moscow, as Christian Vietoris climbed to seventh to lead the Mercedes charge. In the Teams' battle there were none who could challenge BMW Team RMG, who had won three races between their two drivers Wittmann and Martin. Their 27 point advantage was over the first Abt run team of Abt Sportsline, with a second BMW team in Team Schnitzer in fourth. Team HWA could only manage to get one of their teams in the top six, with failing to score a single point for the Stuttgarters. Entries Below is the entry list for the : Qualifying Qualifying saw Mercedes seem to rediscover their form from the Norisring, as three of their cars managed to get through to the final session.'A LAST-GASP POLE POSITION FOR ROBERT WICKENS', dtm.com, (ITR e.V., 03/08/2014), http://www.dtm.com/en/news/last-gasp-pole-position-robert-wickens-2014-08-03.html, (Accessed 10/10/2015) What's more, Robert Wickens claimed his second pole of the season, despite setting a time slower than he managed in Q2, with his fellow Merc combatants in Pascal Wehrlein and Christian Vietoris down in fifth and seventh respectively. Championship leader Marco Wittmann was pushed down in the latter stages of the session, ending up third behind the Canadian and Timo Glock. Four BMW machines were in the top eight shoot-out, with Glock and Wittmann joined by Augusto Farfus (who set the fastest time of the weekend in Q1) and Maxime Martin, as Audi struggled. Only Jamie Green could snatch a Q3 slot, and the Brit could only secure sixth against the Stuttgart and Bavarian crusaders. Their next highest placed car was Mike Rockenfeller, who was down in fourteenth and behind the last of the eight BMWs. A few familiar faces populated the bottom five in Q1, as Vitaly Petrov failed to get through once again, joined by Brits Paul di Resta and Gary Paffett. Both seemed to be out of form, although more concerning (championship wise) was the presence of both Abt Sportsline entries in Edoardo Mortara and Adrien Tambay. In truth, the gap between di Resta in 23rd and Wickens in first was less than eight tenths of a second, but such margins around the Red Bull Ring were enough to see the Canadian on pole, and the Scot at the very back of the pack. Post-Qualifying The results of qualifying for race two are shown below. Race A dry and warm Sunday afternoon in the Austrian mountains emerged for the race, with the race distance set at 47 laps.'MARCO WITTMANN EXTENDS POINTS’ LEAD WITH THIRD SEASON WIN', dtm.com, (ITR e.V., 03/08/2014), http://www.dtm.com/en/news/marco-wittmann-extends-points-lead-third-season-win-2014-08-03.html, (Accessed 10/10/2015) The DMSB announced that the pit window would open on lap 16 and remain open until lap 31, with all 23 cars needing to swap to the opposite compound to the one they started on. The starting tyres for each driver were also announced shortly before the start, with a maximum use for the soft tyre of 22 laps.'THESE ARE THE TYRES FOR THE START OF THE RACE', dtm.com, (ITR e.V., 02/08/2014), http://www.dtm.com/en/news/these-are-tyres-start-race-2014-08-02.html, (Accessed 10/10/2015) Report Pole sitter Robert Wickens leapt ahead of the field at the start to hold his lead from Timo Glock into the first corner, as Marco Wittmann fell to fifth behind Augusto Farfus and Pascal Wehrlein. Glock was quickly put under investigation for being out of position at the start, while, further back, Christian Vietoris was being observed for a jump start. At the end of a contact free first lap, Wickens led from Glock and Farfus, with the following laps seeing Glock and Vietoris go unpunished. The opening stages of the race saw Wickens break away from Glock, the Canadian settling for a two second lead outside of the DRS window. Wittmann, meanwhile, seemed to be struggling to get his tyres up to temperature, as he fell to Jamie Green and Martin Tomczyk in short order. A lap later, Glock and Farfus swapped places after the Brazilian gained the upper hand using DRS down the main straight. Wehrlein almost managed to slip into third, but was firmly pushed back by Glock on the exit of the corner. Now released from the back of his stable mate, Farfus began eating away at Wickens' lead, and by lap eleven had the Canadian firmly in his sights. His first attack came at the hairpin that formed turn two, although the Brazilian could not get enough of his car alongside the Mercedes to take the line for the corner. As their duel ramped up, was handed a warning for exceeding track limits, although to point seemed moot as the Portuguese driver pulled off the circuit to retire with a failure that same lap. Back at the front and the dogfight that consumed Farfus and Wickens remained in the Canadian's favour, with the Brazilian throwing his car at the Merc at every opportunity. Running side-by-side through the entire second sector got the crowd on its feet, although the silver and orange Mercedes remained stubbornly ahead of the green and blue BMW for the time being. At the back of the field, meanwhile, five drivers in , Edoardo Mortara, Joey Hand, Daniel Juncadella and Maxime Martin were penalised for ignoring yellow flags. Farfus called time on his battle with Wickens for the lead by pitting two laps after the opening of the pit window, becoming the first driver to do so. The next few laps saw the leaders, all on the softs, sweep into the pits to remove their tyres before the maximum limit of 23 laps. There was drama when race leader Wickens was put under investigation for an unsafe release, after his pit crew released him straight into the path of Glock. The Canadian lost out to Green and Farfus in the process, with the Brazilian pouncing as he left the pit lane. News also emerged that Green was under investigation for failing to change to the hard tyres before the limit on the softs, while Wickens fought back against Farfus for second. Joey Hand and Paul di Resta came to blows in the meantime, the Scot taking a trip through the gravel as a result, while Wickens was slapped with a drive through for his infringement. Green was likewise handed a trip through the pits, although as the Brit served his penalty, Wickens continued on in the wake of Farfus. Wickens was disqualified from the race with fifteen laps to go, having forced his way past Farfus at turn two earlier in the lap. The Canadian pitted at the end of the lap, as Wittmann began a rise through the field after dispatching Glock at turn two for third. Wickens' disqualification promoted him to second, before a charge on Farfus ended with the now Champion elect in the lead of the race and pulling away from the Brazilian. The final laps saw battles come to their conclusion at the back of the field, Martin pulling a dive down the inside of Gary Paffett for fourteenth. Christian Vietoris, meanwhile, cracked underpressure from , surrendering ninth to the Swede after running wide. But, out front, Wittmann completed an impressive third victory of the campaign, with Farfus falling further back on every lap, while Glock ended the day in third, as Martin Tomczyk completed an all BMW top four. Results The second race final result is displayed below: * Indicates a driver started on the Soft or "Option" tyre. Indicates a driver that started on hard or "prime" tyres. ** Wickens disqualified for failing to serve a drive through penalty within the permitted time (originally issued for an unsafe release). Milestones Standings Marco Wittmann's third win of the season saw him pull an impressive 39 points clear of the rest of the field, meaning he could all but wrap up the title at the . led the anti-Wittmann charge, but looked more likely to have to fight for second with Bruno Spengler than challenge the all conquering German. Mercedes' difficult season continued with only one point scorer in Austria, with those two points heading to their best placed driver in Christian Vietoris. BMW Team RMG continued to stretch their lead in the Teams' Championship as BMW dragged themselves into the lead of the Brands' battle. The two Abt backed Audi teams were next up in the Teams' Championship, helping Audi to stay within six points of the Bavarians, as Mercedes slipped ever further behind on all fronts. Team HWA led their charge from sixth, with their Brand tally not even a third of BMW's. Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown. References Videos and Images: * References: Category:Red Bull Ring Category:2014 Races Category:Races